Whose wife shall she be?

[Sudsy]

Question only for current members at a plain, conservative Mennonite church. If you are not currently a member at a Mennonite church that requires women to wear a covering, please don’t post for a week.

Scenario:
Mary and Michael marry. First marriage for both.
They have two children. Unfortunately they both have multiple affairs, and eventually they divorce.
Michael gets married to a divorcee, Susie, they have no children.
Mary gets married to John. This is John’s first marriage. They have no children.
Mary and John get divorced. John does not remarry.
Mary gets married to a divorcee, Henry. This is both Henry’s and Mary’s third marriage. They have no children. Henry’s prior spouses may or may not be married or living.

Few decades pass. Now, Susie dies. Then Michael dies.

How does or doesn’t Micheals death affect the current married status of Mary? Could Micheals death mean that Mary and Henry’s marriage is right? Does her marriage to John matter at all?

*Names have been changed to protect both the innocent and the guilty.

Well, a week is up so I guess we who 'are not currently a member at a Mennonite church that requires women to wear a covering' can respond.

To the question - 1st question - it doesn't, Mary is in a married state in her current marriage. 2nd question - Micheal's death has nothing to do with with Mary and Henry's marriage state. 3rd question - No.

I based this on the befief that remarriage is an act of adultery but not a state of adultery as explained here and by various others -
https://www.gotquestions.org/remarriage-adultery.html

Without getting into debates on this, which we have had before many times, I would just like to point out that if remarriage is living in a state of adultery. then those of us who live in this state (30 years now for me) would be classified as adulterers and will not inherit the Kingdom of Heaven according to other scripture. Then there is more than one sin that is unforgiveable beyond the sin of rejecting Christ for our salvation.

For the sake of those reading this forum and are remarried, for whatever reasons, not all Mennonites and Anabaptists consider remarriage as living in an on-going state of adultery but rather that God forgives all past sinning and as Jesus said to the woman they were going to stone for adultery, go and sin no more. Jesus said she had five previous husbands. Was He lying or is this a verse to not be taken literally ? No need to answer just think about it.

Well, I'm bailing out now as, imo, this topic is not concerned so much about the salvation of others. but for other reasons I don't care to get into.

It appears to me that you may have the events in John 4 and the events in John 8 mixed together. And Jesus did say in John 4 to the woman who had had 5 husbands, "and the one you now have is not your husband." Not sure what He meant by that.
And to the woman in John 8 who was caught in adultery and was to be stoned He said, "Neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more."
We can't tell for sure if she was caught in the act of adultery and continued in the state of adultery or not.
And was her non-condemnation dependent on her "not continuing in sin"?
Forgiveness is often dependent on repentance and amendment of life, isn't it? Or not in the case of adultery?

I still have no intention of getting into this as a debate on this thread but you are right on me mixing the John 4 and John 8 stories. My memory is not what is once was and I should have checked this out first.

Basically to your questions, I believe a breakup of a marriage is not an unforgiveable sin. But once broken/divorced the couple is now free to enter into a new state of marriage with someone else to do their best with God's help to make permanent. The amendment of their lives is to not enter again into adultery. They are not living in a state of adultery as God has given them a fresh start as He does with all the sins we confess and try again never to repeat.

This perhaps will bring up more questions on this topic but I've been down this trail too many times to know that Christians do not agree on this D&R subject. What I do know is there are many believers that have had failed marriages for a variety of reasons, have accepted God's forgiveness for their part in the marriage breakdown, remarried and are happily following the Lord in their new marriage. Whether others want to consider them as saved or living in sin, that is their choice. I'm so thankful that God continues to forgive me for the same kind of sins I do not want to commit but find at times I still do.

Anyway, thanks for the correction. I will try to be more careful in my references.

[Sliceitup]

That's a broad generalization, and I don't think it's entirely fair. Just because English thinkers don't understand Amish theology, doesn't mean it's "weak"

The most nuanced conversation I've ever had about Divorce and Remarriage was with an Amish minister in Kentucky.

He admitted he didn't have the answer for everyone, but said two-tiered membership was something he had considered, and what they had basically come to.

They'd had over 20 divorced and remarried people come through their community, and want to join, they didn't turn any of them away, or encourage them to go to other churches.

I say they aren’t strong on theology because they have no process through which to teach and evaluate their theological thoughts other than church services. Children receive no formal education on what it means to be Amish. There are no schools where Amish people learn more about their faith. And there is no guarantee that the ministry has any deep knowledge of what it means to be anabaptist. Compared to Mennonites they are theologically destitute.

I would still expect that there would be some opinion present in Amish about the state of divorce and remarriages. It may not be monolithic, and it may not be a hot topic there. But surely they would at least have a cultural tilt toward some position.

Oh yea, they still have an opinion on it. They think it’s wrong. But they most likely wouldn’t be able to tell you why, other than quoting a few scripture verses. They just don’t have the kind of teaching that delves into scripture and tries to understand which scripture is more relevant and how that all shakes out.

[Josh]

My experience with Amish is that they certainly do know Bible verses and can explain things.

They just aren’t evangelical fundamentalists and do not give evangelical fundamentalist exegesis.

[Sliceitup]

My experience with Amish is that they certainly do know Bible verses and can explain things.

They just aren’t evangelical fundamentalists and do not give evangelical fundamentalist exegesis.

I think there are definitely groups that do know their Bible very well. I also find they are more knowledgeable about Old Testament stories than Mennonites.

[RZehr]

I would still expect that there would be some opinion present in Amish about the state of divorce and remarriages. It may not be monolithic, and it may not be a hot topic there. But surely they would at least have a cultural tilt toward some position.

I have an Amish friend I can ask about this sometime.

You probably haven't asked?

[Ken]

It has been well over a week. Did you guys ever figure out the correct answer?

[Josh]

If you want doctrinal clarity about the Amish, be prepared to wait a lot longer than a week.

[RZehr]

It has been well over a week. Did you guys ever figure out the correct answer?

Just about. I think we’re getting really close.

[Ken]

If you want doctrinal clarity about the Amish, be prepared to wait a lot longer than a week.

I was referring to RZehr's original post in which he asked for a week so that the conservatives here could sort out this question unmolested by us liberals.

[Josh]

Nobody asked the important question: whose wife will she be in heaven?